View from the East Thursday, July 26, 2012 By Al Myatt

Pirates not alone in QB search in evolving C-USA

[Editor's note: This report from Dallas by Al Myatt is Part One of two. Part Two will be published on Friday.]

By Al Myatt
©2012 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

DALLAS — Conference USA was in a new location for its football media day, the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Marriott. There was also a different format for the day's proceedings. East Division coaches did television interviews at the local Fox station in the morning and visited with print media in the afternoon. It was vice-versa for the West Division bosses, who did their session with writers before lunch.

Last year in Memphis, each coach took his turn at the podium and spoke to the media as a group.

The upcoming season certainly will be a contrast from a year ago when there seemed to be an overabundance of proven quarterbacks.

Change is part of C-USA's identity at present. The league loses Central Florida, Houston, Memphis and Southern Methodist after this season. UCF's George O'Leary skipped the media event this year and so did Mike Price of Texas-El Paso, who reportedly has but one year remaining on his contract.

As C-USA evolves, it will add Charlotte, Florida International, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Old Dominion and Texas-San Antonio to its membership. The 49ers and Monarchs, who will no doubt become neighboring rivals of the Pirates, will join the fray for the C-USA title in 2015.

Passing arms such as Case Keenum's, which produced 5,631 yards and 48 touchdowns at Houston, are gone. League champ Southern Miss lost the leadership of Austin Davis. Tulsa moves on without G.J. Kinne taking snaps. ECU's situation in the post-Dominique Davis era is certainly not unique among C-USA teams.

"I expect we'll see a slower start to offensive production," said Tulsa coach Bill Blankenship. " ... Will defenses dominate early? It should make for an interesting start to the season."

Southern Methodist and Tulsa both have transfers from powerful programs. Mustangs coach June Jones is grooming Garrett Gilbert, a transfer from Texas. Gilbert came in when Colt McCoy was injured in the national championship game with Alabama at the conclusion of the 2009 season. The Golden Hurricane will have Cody Green at quarterback. He played in 17 games at Nebraska.

The battle for the starting job at quarterback for ECU will begin again on Aug. 3 when preseason practice starts. Rio Johnson, Shane Carden, Brad Wornick and Cody Keith are the contenders.

"I like that group," said Pirates coach Ruffin McNeill. "Cody Keith can throw it around. I like him. He's going to be a really fine quarterback for us here in the future. Rio had a good spring game and ended up strong."

A hand injury forced Carden out midway through spring ball.

"Shane Carden was really coming along in the spring," McNeill said. "I would like to have seen how he would have finished. Brad Wornick is a veteran. He may look tough sometimes in practice but when the lights come on, he seems to make plays.

"I think it will be a battle that will be resolved pretty quickly. It will be the guy that makes the best decisions and makes the least amount of mistakes. That's a key and then who can move the chains and operate the offense. ... I feel good with any of those guys."

Better depth at running back and on the offensive line could help offset inexperience at quarterback. In terms of talent and numbers, the Pirates defense has the potential to continue the improvement it showed during 2011. Some of ECU's special teams personnel may lack experience but Pirates special teams coordinator Kirk Doll certainly does not.

Media day was a time for questions and the 2012 season will provide the answers.

Quick Hits from East Division Coaches

Every coach on hand was asked about a key factor for their programs going forward. Here are the responses from the East Division. The answers from the West Division coaches will go up Friday.

The questions posed to each of the coaches was, 'What factor is foremost for your team to reach its potential this season?'

The answers:

Ruffin McNeill, East Carolina: "Stay healthy. Keep developing depth and keep our competitive spirit. This team is a team I really like. I've said that a number of times. I like their mentality, their competitive spirit. It's a team that does not complain or make excuses which is what I've been aiming for. No egos. No entitlement-type thought process. Teamwork first. Those are things I think we've got to do."

Doc Holliday, Marshall: "I felt last year we took a step as far as getting this program back to winning championships. This year, if we're going to take another step we have to get better as a football team. We've got big challenges out there. This is an excellent league. We play an excellent schedule. I've got a lot of players coming back and they've got to continue to grow as players and as a team to accomplish our goals. I like our team right now. At least we have a quarterback (Rakeem Cato) who has played. I think anytime you're successful, it starts with the quarterback position."

Jason Fuente, Memphis: "Beforehand, we talk about what we want to accomplish. We've got to become accountable to each other. ... The biggest thing to me is how do we handle adversity. We have typically not handled it very well in the past in my understanding. Everybody is in now. When the bullets are flying and we're sitting there in the foxholes, who's going to be in there? That's the thing we've talked about. ... You may have some rocky waters. We've got to keep plugging away. It's a long season. It's a long game. It's a long quarter. It's a long drive. Keep giving yourself one more chance. I think the mark of this team will be how do we handle adversity."

Ellis Johnson, Southern Miss (Johnson was an assistant at ECU from 1985 to 1987): "I think the most important factor overall is that our football team is going to have to develop confidence. That's going to hinge on our players stepping into leadership roles. I think we're going to have a more difficult schedule. Coming off of a successful season, this can be a huge test for our football team's fabric. It's going to stretch us and stress us. Without good leadership from inside, we'll have a tough time being successful through that stretch but if these guys step up and have great leadership, I think we'll be fine. I think we'll benefit from the tough games early and it's going to make us a better team at the end. We've got issues at quarterback. We've got issues at linebacker. We've got issues on the depth chart. We've got a tough schedule. We've got a lot of things that are concerns for me. The main thing that I hope happens in that first three to four weeks of preseason is that this football team develops an attitude and an air of confidence and a unity about themselves with some leadership from inside."

Garrick McGee, UAB: "It would be the way we think. You sit at every one of these tables and they talk about quarterback play or linebacker play or getting more red zone reps. It's all going to be about the way we think, the way we approach our practice sessions, the way we approach the games. That's what's going to decide. In my opinion, that's what separates the great teams from the average teams is the way they think."

Brent Key, UCF (filled in for George O'Leary): "For us to be successful this year, we've got to finish. That's been kind of the goal from Jan. 1 to now is getting that into the players' heads. You go back and evaluate the games we ended up on the short end of the stick last year and it's a play here, a play there. Six of the seven losses were decided by seven points or less. In spring, we got back to the basics. We talked about finishing and then back to the basics, being a team that's going to block and tackle. We're going to block as good as we can and we're going to get better at it. We're going to tackle better. When you look at it, you can be as fancy as you want to be about the game of football but it comes down to who tackles better and who blocks better. That's a fine line. That's what we're trying to get back to."

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